Students who are not from the School of Computer Science must have permission from both Computer Science and their home School to enrol.

Assessment methods

30% Written exam

70% Practical skills assessment

Timetable

Semester

Event

Location

Day

Time

Group

w0

Lecture

1.1

Tue

09:30 - 11:30

-

w0

LUNCH

1.10

Tue

11:00 - 14:00

-

w0

WELCOME

2.19

Tue

12:00 - 16:00

-

w0

WELCOME

Collab

Tue

12:00 - 16:00

-

w0

WELCOME

IT407

Tue

12:00 - 16:00

-

Sem 1

TEAM STUDY

1.8

Thu

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1

TEAM STUDY

2.25A

Thu

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1

TEAM STUDY

Collab

Thu

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1

TEAM STUDY

G41

Thu

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1

TEAM STUDY

LF17

Thu

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1

TEAM STUDY

LF5

Thu

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1

TEAM STUDY

LF6

Thu

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1 w1-3,5,7-12

Workshop

G23

Wed

09:00 - 11:00

G

Sem 1 w1-3,5,7-12

Workshop

G23

Fri

09:00 - 11:00

F

Sem 1 w1-3,5,7-12

Workshop

G23

Fri

11:00 - 13:00

H

Sem 1 w1

Lecture

1.1

Tue

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1 w2-5,7-11

TEAM STUDY

1.8

Tue

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1 w2-5,7-11

TEAM STUDY

G23

Tue

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1 w2-5,7-11

TEAM STUDY

G41

Tue

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1 w2-5,7-11

TEAM STUDY

LF5

Tue

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1 w2-5,7-11

TEAM STUDY

LF6

Tue

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1 w2

TEAM STUDY

IT407

Tue

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1 w3+

TEAM STUDY

Collab

Tue

13:00 - 14:00

-

Sem 1 w4

Workshop

Collab

Fri

09:00 - 11:00

F

Sem 1 w4

Workshop

Collab

Wed

09:00 - 11:00

G

Sem 1 w4

Workshop

Collab

Fri

11:00 - 13:00

H

Sem 1 w5,9,12

TEAM STUDY

Collab 1

Tue

12:00 - 13:00

-

Themes to which this unit belongs

Software Engineering

Agile Methods

Overview

The development of software systems is a challenging process. Customers expect reliable and easy to use software to be developed within a set budget and to a tight deadline. As we come to depend upon software in so many aspects of our lives, its increasing size and complexity, together with more demanding users, means the consequences of failure are increasingly severe. The stakes for today’s software engineers are high!

Experience over the last decades has taught us that software development failures are rarely caused by small scale coding problems. Instead, failures result from the difficulties of writing software that customers actually need, of keeping up with constantly changing requirements, of coping with the scale of large developments, of getting many different people with very different skill sets to work together, and of working with large bodies of existing code that no one on your team may fully understand. Being a good coder is an important part of being a good software engineer, but there are many other skills - including soft skills - that are needed too.

In this course unit, you will get the chance to expand and broaden the programming skills you gained in your first year course units by applying them in a more realistic context than is possible in a small scale lab. Instead of coding from scratch, you will be working in a team to make changes to a large open source software system, consisting of thousands of classes and tens of thousands of files - and all without breaking the existing functionality.

You will fix bugs in the code base and add new features, as well as performing larger scale refactorings to maintain or improve on non-functionality properties of the system. You will perform all this using an industry strength tool set. We will complement the hands-on experience-based learning with an understanding of the core concepts underlying current notions of software engineering best practice. Volunteer mentors from local industry will help you to put your learning into context, and to understand the key importance of being not just a good coder, but a good software engineer.

Aims

This unit aims to help students appreciate the reality of team-based software development in an industrial environment, with customer needs, budget constraints and delivery schedules to be met. Through hands-on experience with an industry-strength development toolkit applied to a large open source software system, students will gain an appreciation of the challenges of green and brownfield software development, along with an understanding of the core software engineering concepts that underpin current best practice. Students will have the core skill set needed by a practicing software engineer, and will be ready to become productive and valuable members of any modern software team.

Assessment is based on:

Three team-based exercises, making changes to the open source system used in the course unit. Together these contribute towards 60% of the total course unit mark.

Two individual coursework exercises together contributing towards 10% of the mark for the course unit.

A multiple choice examination, at the end of the semester. This contributes towards 30% of the total course unit mark.

Syllabus

The following is an outline of the topics covered in COMP23111.

Team software development

Software project planning and issue tracking

Greenfield vs brownfield software development

Git best practices and common Git workflows

Automated build tools and release management

Automated unit, integration and acceptance testing

Test code quality and test coverage tools

Continuous integration and testing tools

Best practices and tool support for code review, including source code quality tools

Design patterns and common architectural patterns

Design for testability

Refactoring for code quality

Safely migrating software functionality

Basic risk management techniques

Working with open source software systems

Deadlines

Team coursework deadlines on 20th October 2017, 17th November 2017 and 8th December 2017.
Marking interviews for the team coursework take place in weeks 5, 9 and 12. The whole team is expected to be present.
Individual coursework to be submitted on Fridays (5pm) in week 5 and week 12.

Teaching methods

Lectures1 introductory lecture in semester 1, week 1.

WorkshopsOne 2 hour workshop each week. In these sessions, you will gain practical, hands-on experience of the techniques being taught.

Team Study SessionsTwo 1 hour sessions per week. In these sessions you will:

Work with your team on the team coursework

Meet your industrial mentor (2 sessions per team)

Get your team coursework marked in a face-to-face interview (3 sessions per team).

Offline StudyA number of off-line study activities and readings are provided, that build on and consolidate the topics covered in workshops. These are compulsory and are assessed in the coursework and exam.

Feedback methods

Staff and TAs will be on hand to provide face-to-face informal feedback during workshops and team study sessions.

The RoboTA system will provide continuous feedback on aspects of the team marking system, using the Jenkins continuous integration system.

TAs will also provide written and verbal feedback on coursework, once marking is complete.